Course of Study

An introduction to the field of American architecture and urbanism: the study of buildings, architects, designs, styles, and urban landscapes, viewed in economic, political, social, and cultural contexts. Organized chronologically, from pre-Colonial times to the present, as well as thematically, the course studies the formation and meaning of the built environment in America. The many topics encountered along the way include the public and private investment in the built environment; history of housing in America; transportation and infrastructure; architectural practice; and the social and political nature of city building and urban change. Attention also paid to the transnational nature of American architecture—the role of colonialism, the global exchange of architectural ideas, and the international careers of some architects. We will take advantage of our local setting, New Haven, as a cross-section of American architectural and urban history and a storehouse of key examples of building types, urban landscapes, and architectural styles. Upon completion, students should be expected to grasp the basic periods, trends, and processes in American architectural history and their connection to urban patterns. This course aims to give students the tools to appreciate and interpret the built environments that surround them, from impressive monuments to ordinary structures.

Professor: Elihu Rubin

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of urban design within the context of the broader fields of urbanism and urban history. That is to say that the design of the built environment will be considered in relation to patterns and practices of urban life and culture, and as a response to historical transformations of the political, economic and technological forces that have shaped cities since antiquity, but especially since the industrial revolution. The course will attempt to negotiate between the broader landscape suggested by these forces and the specifics of particular cities at critical moments in their development and the projects which represent the efforts of those cities and their designers to come to terms with the dynamics of urban change. Thus the lectures will include monographic treatments of specific cities and exemplary urban design projects, as well as the general issues and principles of city design suggested by those case studies, including consideration of their implications for contemporary practice. The weekly classes will provide opportunities for the introduction of supplementary examples from the wider field of international urbanism, as well as introducing techniques of urban representation and analysis relevant to the assignments and to student work in studios. Classes will also provide time for discussion of readings and lectures and issues of current interest.

Professor: Elihu Rubin

This course examines how “the city” has been deployed not only as a subject of speculation, but also as a medium for reimagining worlds. This seminar studies and explores the ways architects, urbanists, designers, writers, artists, and filmmakers have reimagined the city to uncover, probe, and critique ideas, ideals and values about urbanism and the built environment contained and imbricated by these representations. It focuses on the architecture of the built environment depicted in paintings, photographs, films, drawings, maps, models, urban plans, virtual reality machines, and games as well as literary fiction. The course is structured according to various mediums of speculation reimagining the city, montaging a visual history of urbanism and architectural theories about the city. The course toggles between close reading/viewing and analysis of creative forms of writing, art, architecture, and film, and a series of in-class workshops in support of creative exercises. Discussion of assigned readings and course materials is interspersed with organized screenings, viewings of collections, and visits to archives. Workshops engage a range of creative mediums to provide students opportunities and tools to experiment with and develop methods of speculation as they critique and create their own re-imaginings of the city.

Professor: Joyce Hsiang

This course is designed as an introductory survey of the history of landscape architecture and the wider, cultivated landscape in Western Europe and the United States from the Ancient Roman period to mid-twentieth century America. Included in the lectures, presented chronologically, are the gardens of Ancient Rome, medieval Europe, the early and late Italian Renaissance, 17th century France, 18th century Britain, 19th century Britain and America with its public and national parks, and mid-twentieth century America. The course focuses each week on one of these periods, analyzes in detail iconic gardens of the period, and places them within their historical and theoretical context.

Professor: Bryan Fuermann

Difference and the City is a transdisciplinary, cross-institutional hybrid seminar examining how the built environment shapes—and can positively transform—social, cultural, economic, environmental, and spatial inequities. Drawing on student-selected case studies from New York to Nairobi, Baltimore to Buenos Aires, and beyond, the course explores interconnected urban challenges: housing access and community development, food systems and economic inclusion, climate migration and environmental injustice, mobility infrastructure, and the contested politics of public space, heritage, and belonging. Students with backgrounds or interests in architecture, landscape, urban design, planning, preservation, public policy, and allied fields collaborate through seminar discussions, analytic exercises, and workshops to develop counter-stories that surface overlooked actors, buried histories, and unrealized possibilities. The heart of the course is an independent final project—a research paper or design project tailored to each student’s background and interests—that moves from analysis to proposition, advancing new knowledge and ideas for more just, inclusive, and resilient places.

Professor: Justin Moore

Critical analysis of the creation, use, and cultural meanings of data visualization, with emphasis on both the theory and the politics of visual communication. Seminar discussions include close readings of historical data graphics since the late eighteenth century and conceptual engagement with graphic semiology, ideals of objectivity and honesty, and recent approaches of feminist and participatory data design. Course assignments focus on the research, production, and workshopping of students’ own data graphics; topics include both historical and contemporary material. No prior software experience is required; tutorials are integrated into weekly meetings. Basic proficiency in standard graphics software is expected by the end of the term, with optional support for more advanced programming and mapping software.

Professor: Bill Rankin

How have people made decisions about the future when the environment is uncertain? This lecture class provides a global perspective on how societies have tried to understand and live with an unpredictable world. Beginning in 1100, we examine a series of historical episodes when communities faced environmental dangers, uncertain futures, and how they managed risk. Case studies include water and landscape management in the Song Dynasty, navigation across the Pacific Ocean, utopian cities in the Americas, agricultural and urban systems in South Asia, environmental design in West Africa, and the global rise of weather observatories to monitor atmospheric changes. Rather than telling a linear history of progress or decline, the course asks a more fundamental question: how do people claim to know the environment, and how does uncertainty shape that knowledge? Throughout the semester, we examine how different cultures develop their own strategies for understanding a world that has never been entirely predictable. Drawing on the histories of science, technology, architecture, and the environment, students see how debates about risk, planetary health, and expertise have deep historical roots.

Professor: Anthony Acciavatti

Research and writing colloquium for seniors in the Urban Studies and History, Theory, and Criticism tracks. Under guidance of the instructor and members of the Architecture faculty, students define their research proposals, shape a bibliography, improve research skills, and seek criticism of individual research agendas. Requirements include proposal drafts, comparative case study analyses, presentations to faculty, and the formation of a visual argument. Guest speakers and class trips to exhibitions, lectures, and special collections encourage use of Yale’s resources.

Professor: Kyle Dugdale